Closure valve for the outlet port of a pressure vessel



Sept. 15, 1964 MERGER 3,148,702

CLOSURE VALVE FOR THE OUTLET PORT OF A PRESSURE VESSEL Filed June 27, 1961 /5 INVENTOR. 175F067? United States Patent 3,148,702 CLGSURE VALVE FOR THE OUTLET PORT OF A PRESSURE VESSEL Jean Mercier, 1185 Paris Ave., New York, N.Y. Filed June 27, 1961, Ser. No. 120,083 Claims priority, application France July 6, 1960 S Ciaims. (Ci. 137-599.2)

This invention relates to the closure of the outlet port of a container for fluid, and more particularly to a closure valve for a pressure accumulator of the type having a rigid container to be filled with fluid,usually oil and air under pressure and having a deformable partition intervening between such fluids.

When oil is pumped into the liquid outlet port of the container on one side of the partition it will deform the latter and compress the air previously charged into the container on the other side of the partition.

In use of the accumulator, when the outlet port of the accumulator is opened, the partition in expanding will force the oil from the container through the outlet port to the hydraulic device to be operated.

Where a valve is used to control said outlet port, unless such valve remains open until substantially all of the oil in the container is expelled, the trapped oil will not be available for useful purposes. Where, however, the partition when expanding is forced against and extrudes past the closure valve, it is likely to become pinched or torn with resultant failure of the equipment.

It is accordingly among the objects of the invention to provide a closure valve for the outlet port of a pressure accumulator of the above type, which closure valve has but few sturdy parts that may readily be assembled and are not likely to become out of order and which valve will remain open until substantially all of the oil in the accumulator is expelled, yet will dependably close before the partition in the container can be extruded past such closure valve.

Another object is to provide a valve for the liquid port of the accumulator which will provide a greater flow in one direction than the other through said port and will close only when substantially all the liquid has been expelled from the accumulator by the expanding partition.

According to the invention these objects are accomplished by the arrangement and combination of elements hereinafter described, and particularly recited in the claims.

This application is a continuation-in-part of copending application Serial No. 816,114, filed May 27, 1959, now abandoned.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown oneof various possible embodiments of the several features of the invention, the single figure is a longitudinal sectional view of an accumulator according to one embodiment of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown a pressure accumulator comprising a container or pressure vessel 10, preferably of strong rigid material, such as steel, cast aluminum or the like, capable of withstanding high pressures. The container may be spherical or cylindrospherical as desired and has a deformable partition 11 intervening between axially aligned openings 12 and 13 therein. Preferably, the partition is a collapsible and expansible bladder which desirably is of resilient material such as rubber or synthetic plastic of like physical characteristics which in undistended, substantially unstretched condition is smaller than the cavity of the container and the opening 12 which defines the gas inlet port leadsinto the bladder 11 and is controlled by a valve 14.

Means are provided to close the opening 13. Such ways 32 out of thecoupling 65'.

means desirably comprises an outlet closure assembly 15 secured in said opening 13.

As shown, the closure assembly 15 comprises a tubular member 21 secured in the liquid port 13 of the accumulator 10 by means of a nut 24, the flange 25 at the lower end of which reacts against the flange 26 on the tubular member 21. The bore 27 of the tubular member is of reduced diameter as at 28 outwardly of its inner end 29 which defines a valve seat 31. A plurality of passageways 32 extend parallel to bore 27 to provide communication between the upper and lower portions 33, 34 thereof, said passageway 32 having ports 35 and 36 at each end respectively.

Secured in the upper end of the reduced diameter portion 28 of bore 27 is a bushing 37 which slidably mounts a valve stem 38. The upper end of the valve stem 38 has a valve head 39 preferably formed integral therewith which is normally retained against valve seat 31 by a coil spring 41, compressed between the outer end of bushing 37 and an annular flange 42 at the outer end of the valve stem 38.

The valve stem 38 has an axial bore 43 in which is slidably mounted a rod 44. The valve head 39 has an axial bore in communication with said axial bore 43 and of larger diameter than'the latter, the lower end of said bore 40 defining a seat 45 to receive a ball valve 46 normally retained on its seat by a relative-1y weak coil spring 47.

A very flexible plate 48 is secured at 49 as by a rivet to the valve means and extends over the inner end of bore 40, a coil spring 51 positioned in a recessin the valve head reacting against said plate 48 between the outer edge Zone thereof and its mount zone, to space the outer edge zone from its seat.

The valve stem 38 has a transverse bore 52 leading into the bore 43 of the valve stem 38 and adapted to provide communication between the bore 40, the portion 33 of bore 27 and the passageways 32.

The lower end of the rod 44 extends through an axial bore 55 in a plug 56 secured in the outer end of bore 27 and reacts against the head 57 of a button 58 slidably mounted in the bore 59 of a screw 61 threaded into the lower end of the bore 27.

A passageway 62 extends through the tubular member 21 leading into the passageway 32 and is controlled by a valve 63.

A transverse bore 64 extends through the tubular member 21 into the portion 34 of bore 27 and a coupling 65 is connected to said bore 64.

In the operation of the unit when oil under pressure flows through coupling 65' it will pass into portion 33 to react against the valve head 39 to lift the latter oif its seat 31 so that a large opening will be provided for admission of fluid into the accumulator. In addition, the fluid under pressure will also pass through transverse bore 52 to react against ball valve 46 to move the latter off its seat 45 against the tension of coil spring 47 so that a small quantity of fluid 'will also pass through bore 40 into the accumulator.

When the admission of fluid into the accumulator through coupling 65 has been completed and the flow has stopped, the coil spring 41 will move the valve head 39 onto its seat, the ball valve .46 also closing at this time under the action of coil spring 47.

If it is desired to empty the accumulator it is merely necessary to press button 58 which, through rod 44, will lift the ball valve 46 ofi its seat, so that fluid may-flow beneath the plate 48 through bores 40 and 52, passage- It is apparent that such flow will be relatively small due to the small size of passageways 52.

When the accumulator is empty the expanding bladder s ear o2 will press against plate 48 to move the latter downwardly V to close the bore 40 so that the flow of fluid will be stopped.

With the construction above described, a closure memher is provided which will permit relatively large flow of fluid into the accumulator for charging thereof, yet will permit relatively small flow from the accumulator "when desired, all with assurance that when substantially :all of the oil is discharged from the accumulator, the outflet port will be closed without likelihood of extrusion of the bladder.

As many changes could be made in the above construc- :tions, and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from ;the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter atontained in the above description or shown in the accompany'ing drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and .not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. Valve means for controlling the flow of fluid from the outlet port of a pressure vessel of the type having a rigid container with an outlet port and a deformable partition intervening between the inlet and outlet port of said pressure vessel, said valve means comprising a tubular member adapted to be positioned in such outlet port, with its inner end in such container, the inner end of said member defining a valve seat, said'tubular member having a central bore and a passageway extending substantially parallel to said central bore, said passageway having an outlet, a valve stem slid-ably mounted in said central bore, said stem having a valve head at its inner end, resilient means reacting against said stem normally retaining said valve head on said seat, said stem and said valve head having an axial bore therethrough, a transverse bore leading into said axial bore in said stern, and in communication at its other end with said passageway, the bore in said valve head defining a second valve seat, a valve member adapted to be positioned on said second seat to close the latter, a flexible plate secured to the valve head and having a portion thereof extending over the axial bore in the valve head and normally spaced therefrom, and means to move said valve member oif its seat for flow of fluid through the axial bore in the valve head into said passageway.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which a rod is slidably mounted in the bore of said valve stem and reacts against said valve member to move the latter off its seat.

3. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which said flexible plate is a strip secured at one end to the valve head and extending over the bore therein, resilient means in said valve head bore reacting against said strip between the outer edge zone thereof and the mount zone thereof to space the outer edge zone from the valve head so that the strip is spaced from said bore to provide clearance therebetween.

4. The combination set forth in claim 3 in which said valve member is a ball and said resilient means also reacts against said ball to retain the latter against its seat.

5. The combination set forth in claim 3 in which a coil spring is positioned between the free end of said strip and the valve head to urge said free end inwardly toward the container.

Reterences @itcd in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,811,375 Wysong June 23, 1931 2,469,171 Mercier May 3, 1949 2,679,263 Kiser May 25, 1954 2,904,074 Towler Sept. 15, 1959 2,908,109 Rotwein Oct. 13, 1959 2,932,322 Mercier Apr. 12, 1960 

1. VALVE MEANS FOR CONTROLLING THE FLOW OF FLUID FROM THE OUTLET PORT OF A PRESSURE VESSEL OF THE TYPE HAVING A RIGID CONTAINER WITH AN OUTLET PORT AND A DEFORMABLE PARTITION INTERVENTING BETWEEN THE INLET AND OUTLET PORT OF SAID PRESSURE VESSEL, SAID VALVE MEANS COMPRISING A TUBULAR MEMBER ADAPTED TO BE POSITIONED IN SUCH OUTLET PORT, WITH ITS INNER END IN SUCH CONTAINER, THE INNER END OF SAID MEMBER DEFINING A VALVE SEAT, SAID TUBULAR MEMBER HAVING A CENTRAL BORE AND A PASSAGEWAY EXTENDING SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL TO SAID CENTRAL BORE, SAID PASSAGEWAY HAVING AN OUTLET, A VALVE STEM SLIDABLY MOUNTED IN SAID CENTRAL BORE, SAID STEM HAVING A VALVE HEAD AT ITS INNER END, RESILIENT MEANS REACTING AGAINST SAID STEM NORMALLY RETAINING SAID VALVE HEAD ON SAID SEAT, SAID STEM AND SAID VALVE HEAD HAVING AN AXIAL BORE THERETHROUGH, A TRANSVERSE BORE LEADING INTO SAID AXIAL BORE IN SAID STEM, AND IN COMMUNICATION AT ITS OTHER END WITH SAID PASSAGEWAY, 